PhotoEssays

Prison Conditions in Liberia, September 2011

Tags:

The human rights group, Amnesty International, says conditions in some Liberian prisons are so poor that they violate basic human rights.
Amnesty illustrated a report it published on the situation with these photographs.

Credit: Glenna Gordon/Amnesty

In Monrovia Central Prison, cells intended for two to four inmates hold up to ten or more, says Amnesty. There are often not enough beds or mattresses for all inmates.

Credit: Glenna Gordon/Amnesty

Inmates receive one meal a day of rice, the Liberian staple, and sauce. They complained that the sauce contained little if any fish or meat for protein, and that it hardly covered the rice.

Credit: Glenna Gordon/Amnesty

The bathrooms are dark, wet and dirty, and there is no plumbing.

Credit: Glenna Gordon/Amnesty

The walls in Monrovia Central prison are covered in drawings and messages, most written in a black powder made from the ground up innards of used batteries. There are a few windows, and even fewer lights.

Credit: Glenna Gordon/Amnesty

The women's cells are less crowded than the men's cells, but are no less dirty.

Credit: Glenna Gordon/Amnesty

There are only two water pumps for 826 inmates at Monrovia Central Prison. Inmates take turns collecting buckets or jerry cans of water and sending them up to the cells.

Credit: Glenna Gordon/Amnesty

Prisoner's hands on the bars in his cell door, Liberia, March 2011.

Credit: Glenna Gordon/Amnesty

The clinic at Monrovia Central Prison has some medications but prisoners complained that they are often sent back to their cells without receiving any drugs.

Credit: Amnesty International

The on-site clinic provides free health care to the prisoners, but it is often lacking essential medicines and qualified staff. Many prisoners have to be transferred to the John F. Kennedy Hospital for treatment.

Credit: Amnesty International

A bathroom in the juvenile cells.

Credit: Amnesty International

A curtain is the only privacy provided for the bathroom in the juveniles cell at Gbarnga Central Prison (Bong County), Liberia.

Credit: Amnesty International

Block D at Monrovia Central Prison. Prisoners have no access to running water and place their water bottles through the cell windows so they can be filled by inmates who are allowed to go outside.

Credit: Amnesty International

A juvenile cell at Monrovia Central Prison. The cells do not have beds and there aren't enough foam mattresses.

Credit: Amnesty International

Cells in Block D measure approximately 2 x 3 meters in size and prisoners and correctional officers reported that overcrowding is a severe problem in this block.

AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing 2000 news and information items daily from over 130 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Lagos, Monrovia, Nairobi and Washington DC.